Seven things to fondly remember as we mourn the World Cup

Isn’t the World Cup just great? There’s literally so much to love about the tournament, and over the last few decades we’ve had seen some truly phenomenal moments.

Unfortunately, the fun sponges at FIFA just love to destroy everything we hold most dear to us and have made some baffling decisions in the last few years. So then, with that in mind, let’s look back at seven things we can remember whilst sobbing ourselves to sleep, whilst mourning the World Cup.

Thirty-two teams, summer tournament – enough said. Our blood is boiling just thinking about the kind of higher ups that have made these decisions, but we digress. This is all about positivity, and damn it we’re going to maintain that. So sit back and enjoy as we take a good old trip down memory lane.

Sticker books

"I've got three Theo Walcotts, can I trade for that Bulgarian lad so I can complete their team?". Whether you're 10, 20 or 60 you can have hours of fun with the Panini sticker books. Hello childhood, you beautiful thing you.
Source: Twitter

Team songs

Football's coming home is enough to get any England fan prepared for a tournament. No matter how cheesy or tacky they were, the songs were so entertaining in one way or another that you couldn't help but love them.
Source: Twitter

Elite knockouts

Back in the day you had to be a seriously great nation in order to qualify for the World Cup knockout stages. However as we move into the 48-team era, it's going to become easier and easier for sides to qualify from the group stages. It's just thoroughly disappointing.
Source: Twitter

Fun host nations

Brazil is a fun place for a World Cup. So is Germany, France and to an extent Korea & Japan. What isn't fun is Russia and Qatar, especially considering how corrupt the nature of their victories were. We want our World Cup back.
Source: Twitter

Wall charts

Prepare to take down that painting your wife loves, because the wall charts are going to get a whole lot bigger. Filling it in throughout the tournament pretty much makes you feel like the chairman of FIFA, and it's bloody brilliant.
Source: Twitter

Sweepstakes

Finding 32 people for a World Cup sweepstake is alright, as you groan about getting some South American country you've never heard of. But extending that to 48? Come on, you're bound to get some office blokes who drag their feet about it. The bores.
Source: Twitter

Shock exclusions

Come on, in 2026 you could be god awful in the qualifiers and still breeze through. What a shame.
Source: Twitter

So with all these things in mind, there’s only one course of action necessary. Go online and buy a collection of old World Cup DVDs, binge watch them all then call up FIFA and yell abuse down the phone. If that isn’t the definition of justice, then nothing is.

I'm a 22-year-old sports journalist covering football, MMA, NFL, WWE and more. I'm a Wolves fan, because for some reason I enjoy misery and heartache season after season.
Forever dreaming of a team of Steve Bulls.